RASCALS releases today!!

Please catch David Dhawan's latest comedy  starring Sanjay Dutt and Ajay Devgan... for our animation titles!!
Animagic has created a 3 1/2 min animation sequence which incorporates the opening credits with gags depicting the rascally duo's scams and cons..some starting from the time they were young! Watch baby Sanju and little Ajay begin their dubious careers in full 2d glory!! There's some more stuff in the intervals and the end so don't miss that either!
And maybe for the first time the hero of a movie is called Chetan!!!!! (for whatever reason..it still is chetan)
Here are some frames from this funky piece.

 the scamsters are always surrounded with babes!

 they steal with a smile!!

Starring the deadly dutt! Sanju Baba!! as Chetan!!

 starring Ajay Devg(a)n!! as Bhagat!!

 the main logo ..

 proudly proclaiming his distinction!

too cool..

Will post more stuff soon! Cheers!

TRIPURA: Character Designs 2: SHIVA & PASHUPATI

OM NAMAHA SHIVAYA!!

On the auspicious occasion of Mahashivaratri... want to put down my thoughts about the character design process relating to the great God. Actually the post has been in the works since the last one on Maya's design, but somehow it just hasn't got completed till now!

Designing Shiva was most of the most important things personally and we went thru Shiva as he had been depicted by practically everybody! We looked at everything we could find, from the bronze sculptures of South India, the reliefs at Ellora and Elephanta, to the comic book depictions of Waeerkar, Mulick and Kavadi and drew till what felt like Shiva to me, was on paper. Everybody responded to it favourably enough (above).
Getting the design correctly onto screen was the most unfortunate part of Tripura tho. For some reason the studio was not able to match design at all and even corrections sent didn't somehow get implemented. One of the mysteries of production dynamics to which I haven't received any answer yet.

Some of the rough sketches leading to the development of the final design

When Shiva went into destruction mode he would become Pashupati the primeval hunter.. the lord of destruction! In his terrifying aspect Shiva is often depicted as Gajantaka in the Ellora panels and elsewhere.
Since we felt there should be definite climb into the climax.. the buildup of the moment of Shiva becoming Pahupati would be fascinating to watch.. Even Vishnu and Brahma  contribute to the formation. (In the puranas, the gods are described as contributing to the process by providing various accessories)

Color key from the final storyboards:
Shiva turning in Pashupati!

Shiva in his violent aspect was to still be graceful, elegant.. when Shiva does it.. it is dance of destruction!! Maybe in  a future post,I will talk about this sequence in detail as many have expressed their satisfaction with this depiction of Shiva as the Destroyer!!

TRIPURA: Character Designs 1: Maya

the many moods of Maya- the Architect of Tripura

One of the most amazing stages of animation film making is character development!!

where personalities emerge where there were just names or concepts earlier... what does Maya look like..how old does he look.. his three wards.. what are they like...what is the appearance of Vishnu, Brahma and most importantly Shiva himself?

What about the world of the story..other supporting cast who will interact with these main characters and make the story real for the viewing audience? the refugee asura people who become prosperous only to become refugees again.. the deva council with Agni, Vayu the sages...the deva and the asura warriors who would fight the big battle..

Tripura was a truly ambitious film to design. Its scale and proportions were epic in the true sense of the world. We always designed acc to the needs of the story and characters and then if needed tailored them for the production format. Really no reason to think we couldn't have an epic for the small screen!...sigh..

Maya's design seemed to appear complete from the ether!! On left are the first scribbles, and then the third.. the final Design..

A turnaround of the character's final design is provided to the production company.

After Maya got designed, I finally realised who he reminded me of!!! I seemed to have subconsciously cast a dear friend's brother in the starring role!! Murli Menon (who has since become a dear friend himself!) was of course overjoyed!! And as we came to know him better, he turned out to be a major entertainer!! quite unlike our too serious Maya in the film.. He's too talented!! and great presence too! He should be in show business!!!

BTW his sister, our dear friend, her name... Maya!!!!!! Go figure!!

TRIPURA: Some Early Concept Art

Many more thanks to all the people that are continuing to express their satisfaction over Tripura!

As a response to requests to share some more artwork from behind the scenes at Animagic, I present with great relish some of the earliest concept art that was presented to ACK and CN to give them an idea of the direction we wanted to take. In all modesty we can say these generated much excitement at that very initial stage!!

An important image which presented the concept of Vimanas or 'flying machines' which emerged during visual development.

The above image set the tone for the color script of the flashback sequences.

Wanted to see realm of Vishnu as a space without boundaries or an empty, endless vastness ..Ananta..

All the above images by your friendly neighbourhood, C

Talisman.. The Trailer!!

character study for Talisman

Have itching to put up something interesting for a while..but juggling too many things.. the studio is undergoing some rapid and cool developments.. you will hear about it soon!

concept for BigB's character in the Talisman promo

In the meantime some semi-recent stuff that was great fun to do. Some of you who caught Ekalvya on the big screen may have seen a trailer for a film called Talisman, to be directed by one of our fondest friends, Ram Madhvani (Happydent, Xbox360, Himani Pain Relief etc,etc) and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. This film was a fantasy-'sword and sorcery' epic, the sort not made in India since the magical 60s and based on 'Chandrakanta' a late 19th century novel which I think, was initially a serialised story appearing in periodicals.It was written by Babu Devakinandan Khatri and borrows many concepts from the then widely popular Dastan traditions.

Character concept

We worked only on visualising and designing the preview trailer which was to announce the film. Initially we were to also execute this special effects heavy piece as well as create concept art for the entire film, but it was not possible for us to get involved for ten thousand reasons.. the most important of which was that we just couldnt have handled it logistically .Also this was a moment of truth period, where we realised we wanted to return our focus to animation.

The following are the boards we did for the piece. It helped to set the tone for the piece and the design for Amitabh (yes, him again) Bachchan's character.All of this was done practically overnight and was enormously satisfying to put together. Quite a rush!

...the storyboard panels

Anyway, the released trailer is on youtube.. here it is. Some details are different in it as you will see. My personal opinions aside, in the time at hand, it got done and well enough to be put on the screen! so kudos to Ram's team for sheer courage in the face of odds!! Thats how movies get made in India!!